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SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
 
Solar wind
speed: 497.3 km/sec
density: 9.1 protons/cm3
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A5
1914 UT Nov30
24-hr: A7
1441 UT Nov30
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2300 UT
Daily Sun: 30 Nov 17
Departing sunspot AR2689 poses no threat for strong solar flares. Credit: SDO/HMI

Sunspot number: 12
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 30 Nov 2017

Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2017 total: 87 days (26%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)

2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)

Updated 30 Nov 2017


The Radio Sun
10.7 cm flux: 73 sfu
explanation | more data
Updated 30 Nov 2017

Current Auroral Oval:
Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/Ovation
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 2 quiet
24-hr max: Kp= 4
unsettled
explanation | more data
Interplanetary Mag. Field
Btotal: 6.6 nT
Bz: 2.9 nT north
more data: ACE, DSCOVR
Updated: Today at 2350 UT
Coronal Holes: 30 Nov 17

Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole. Credit: SDO/AIA
Noctilucent Clouds Latest images from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that the 2017 northern summer season for noctilucent clouds has finished.
Switch view: Europe, USA, Asia, Polar
Updated at: 09-03-2017 01:55:03
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts
Updated at: 2017 Nov 29 2200 UTC
FLARE
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
CLASS M
01 %
01 %
CLASS X
01 %
01 %
Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm
Updated at: 2017 Nov 29 2200 UTC
Mid-latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
25 %
15 %
MINOR
10 %
05 %
SEVERE
01 %
01 %
High latitudes
0-24 hr
24-48 hr
ACTIVE
15 %
15 %
MINOR
30 %
20 %
SEVERE
35 %
20 %
 
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017
What's up in space
       
 

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CME MISSES EARTH: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hurled into space days ago by a magnetic explosion on the sun was supposed to sideswipe Earth's magnetic field on Nov. 29th. Instead, it missed. NOAA forecasters have therefore reduced the odds of a G1-class geomagnetic storm to 30%. This remaining chance is due to a stream of solar wind crossing Earth's path on Nov. 30th. Free: Aurora Alerts.

BUT WHO NEEDS A CME? On Nov. 29th, just as the CME was missing Earth, auroras appeared in the skies over Abisko, Sweden. Photographer Oliver Wright had already gone to bed, but when he saw a ribbon of green appear on the Lights Over Lapland webcam, he dressed and headed out to the shore of Lake Torneträsk. Wright had a special shot in mind:

"Earlier in the day I found some amazing ice sculptures by the lake," he explains. "These had been caused by a huge storm whilst it was -10C. The ice here is actually covering a small tree even though it looks an alien landscape."

Without a CME, what caused the auroras?  At the time of the display, Earth was making first contact with a stream of solar wind flowing from a fissure in the sun's atmosphere--a stream that may yet cause a G1-class geomagnetic storm on Nov. 30th  If it does, another trip to the frozen forest of Abisko may be in the offing. Stay tuned.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

CIRCULAR MAGNETIC FILAMENT: For nearly two weeks, astronomers have watched a remarkable filament of magnetism glide across the face of the sun.  Most filaments on the sun are roughly linear. This one, however, is shaped like a circle more than 125,000 km in diameter. Today, the Great Round Filament is rotating over the sun's western limb, where Randy Shivak of Estero, Florida, photographed it in profile:

"Watching the filament go over the horizon is a great way to study its structure," says Shivak. "I took the picture using my Astro-Physics 152mm F8 refracting telescope, a Daystar Quantum PE .5 angstrom filter, and a ZWO asi174mm video camera."

The unusual structure of this filament may be unstable.  Magnetic fields curling back on themselves in this fashion can criss, cross, and explode--a process known as "magnetic reconnection." An explosion on the sun's limb would be spectacular indeed.  Monitoring is encouraged.

Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery

THE CHRISTMAS SPACE PICKLE: The Christmas pickle is a holiday tradition in the United States. Make way for a new tradition: The Christmas Space Pickle! To raise money for their cosmic ray research, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have flown a payload full of the glass pickle ornaments to the stratosphere, and you can have one for your own tree.

Priced at $79.95, each space-faring gherkin comes with a Christmas card showing your ornament in space. The inside flap tells the story of the pickle's flight and confirms that the pickle has traveled to the edge of space and back again. It also comes with a bonus photo of the pickle in the stratosphere. Hang it on your Christmas tree alongside the pickle itself to impress holiday visitors!

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education


Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

  All Sky Fireball Network
Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Nov. 30, 2017, the network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]

  Near Earth Asteroids
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.
On November 30, 2017 there were 1869 potentially hazardous asteroids.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2017 WE28
2017-Nov-24
5.8 LD
9.3
16
2017 VZ14
2017-Nov-24
3.2 LD
8.4
33
2017 WZ13
2017-Nov-25
6.9 LD
11
18
2017 WT12
2017-Nov-25
3 LD
14.7
13
2017 VY13
2017-Nov-25
2 LD
10.5
18
2017 WH13
2017-Nov-26
1.7 LD
11.4
16
2017 WQ13
2017-Nov-26
12.7 LD
9.5
20
2017 WO16
2017-Nov-26
10.6 LD
7.6
35
2017 WC14
2017-Nov-27
7.3 LD
11.1
26
2017 WK15
2017-Nov-27
8.8 LD
5.6
16
2017 WF15
2017-Nov-27
20.1 LD
9.6
18
2017 WK1
2017-Nov-28
7.8 LD
8
14
2017 WD28
2017-Nov-28
4.5 LD
13.3
26
2017 WF16
2017-Nov-29
3.7 LD
4.2
6
2017 WN15
2017-Nov-29
7.4 LD
19.4
38
2017 WH28
2017-Nov-30
19.7 LD
14.7
45
2017 WH2
2017-Nov-30
6.4 LD
16.8
48
2008 WM61
2017-Dec-02
3.7 LD
4.7
16
2017 WH16
2017-Dec-03
17.4 LD
15.2
26
2017 WZ27
2017-Dec-03
13.6 LD
4.2
11
2017 WS13
2017-Dec-05
9.5 LD
11.3
42
2017 WF28
2017-Dec-06
17.6 LD
7.6
21
2017 WV12
2017-Dec-09
3.5 LD
10.6
25
2017 WE13
2017-Dec-12
16.4 LD
5.4
26
2017 VS14
2017-Dec-12
15.9 LD
2.8
15
2015 XX169
2017-Dec-14
9.7 LD
6.3
11
2006 XY
2017-Dec-14
3.4 LD
4.9
56
2017 VT14
2017-Dec-17
3.8 LD
10.4
105
2011 YD29
2017-Dec-19
17.6 LD
7.7
20
2017 WX12
2017-Dec-21
10.1 LD
11.5
124
2017 TS3
2017-Dec-22
18.1 LD
10.2
136
418849
2017-Dec-22
15.3 LD
17.4
257
2015 YQ1
2017-Dec-22
17.3 LD
11.1
9
2017 WZ14
2017-Dec-24
7.6 LD
4.9
32
2017 QL33
2017-Dec-30
13.3 LD
8.2
191
2015 RT1
2018-Jan-02
19.7 LD
9
30
2004 FH
2018-Jan-10
20 LD
8.5
26
306383
2018-Jan-22
14.4 LD
17.4
178
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
  Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere

Readers, thank you for your patience while we continue to develop this new section of Spaceweather.com. We've been working to streamline our data reduction, allowing us to post results from balloon flights much more rapidly, and we have developed a new data product, shown here:

This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California.

What is this all about? Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly space weather balloons to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Furthermore, there are studies ( #1, #2, #3, #4) linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in the general population. Our latest measurements show that cosmic rays are intensifying, with an increase of more than 13% since 2015:


Why are cosmic rays intensifying? The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth's magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.

The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.

The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Reneger-Pfotzer maximum, which lies about 67,000 feet above central California. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. Physicists Eric Reneger and Georg Pfotzer discovered the maximum using balloons in the 1930s and it is what we are measuring today.

  Essential web links
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
  The official U.S. government space weather bureau
Atmospheric Optics
  The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
  Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever.
STEREO
  3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO.
Daily Sunspot Summaries
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
NOAA 27-Day Space Weather Forecasts
  fun to read, but should be taken with a grain of salt! Forecasts looking ahead more than a few days are often wrong.
Aurora 30 min forecast
  from the NOAA Space Environment Center
Heliophysics
  the underlying science of space weather
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